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Tahir Qureshi
Tahir Qureshi is a senior sub-editor at India.com, whose primary duties are writing news related to different beats like National. World, Business, and viral. He also breaks stories and then follows t ... Read More
New Delhi: Many countries have come out openly against Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela. Cuba, whose relations with the USA have been strained for many years, has condemned the attack on Venezuela. Cuba has said that 32 of its citizens were killed during the US military operation and issued a statement on Sunday, January 4, saying that two days of mourning will be observed on January 5 and 6 in honour of those killed. The Cuban state news agency Prensa Latina said that the Cuban “fighters” were killed while “carrying out a mission” on behalf of the Venezuelan army at the request of the Venezuelan government.
The agency said that the Cubans were killed “after putting up a fierce fight,” either “in direct combat with the attackers or due to bombing of the facility.” Cuba is a close ally of the Venezuelan government and has sent military and police forces to assist in operations in the Latin American country for years. The US military attacked Venezuela last week and arrested President Nicolas Maduro along with his wife, Cilia Flores. He will now be tried in a US court.
The images of blindfolded President Maduro being led away in handcuffs have shocked the people of Venezuela. Protests demanding the president’s return have also begun in Venezuela. Venezuelan Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino said on state television that a “large number” of soldiers, civilians, and members of Maduro’s security team were “brutally” killed in the US attack.
However, he did not specify the number of casualties. The New York Times, citing a Venezuelan official, reported that at least 40 people were killed in the attacks. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, also said that “there were a lot of deaths on the other side during the strikes.” Trump also claimed that “many Cubans were killed in the strikes, and there were no deaths on our side.”
Trump also threatened the Colombian president with an attack similar to the one on Venezuela. However, he indicated that he would not carry out such an attack on Cuba. But he said that the Cuban government would collapse on its own. Trump said, “Cuba is ready to fall. Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall. I don’t know how they’re going to handle it, if they can, but Cuba has no income now. They used to get all their income from Venezuela, from Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of that anymore. Cuba is literally ready to fall. And you have a lot of great Cuban Americans who would be very happy about that.”
The Bay of Pigs Operation was a failed 1961 CIA-backed invasion of Cuba by US-trained Cuban exiles, intended to overthrow Fidel Castro’s communist government, but resulted in a major embarrassment for the US, strengthened Castro’s regime, and pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union, contributing to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The poorly planned invasion at the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) was quickly defeated by Cuban forces, with most invaders captured.
Cuba, in 1962, caused significant trouble for the United States. The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in 1962 during the Cold War and lasted for 13 days when the Soviet Union deployed ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear bombs in Cuba. This brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. If Cuba were to do something similar to what it did in 1962, it could cause serious trouble for the United States.
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